Publishing Experience:I have several short stories published with online magazines such as Bewildering Stories and Aphelion, and part of the 7DS anthology SLAYERS. I have six books in a paranormal series self-published, and as of 2015, I write articles for Gaiam TV. See my blog for more details.

Posted 18 May 2011 - 05:21 PM

I've been toying with the idea of offering a gift of some kind for every milestone number. What do you think? Good idea? Bad idea?

~I am neither an author nor a writer; I am a storyteller with good grammar.~

Publishing Experience:I'm a NY Times and USA Today bestselling author writing under the pen name, Cali MacKay and write fun and steamy contemporary romances, in addition to erotica, paranormal romances and mysteries. I also write steampunk romances under the pen name Calista Taylor.

Posted 18 May 2011 - 06:07 PM

Do you mean to everyone that follows or for the person that allows you to reach that milestone? If it's the later, I don't see how it would motivate people to join if you essentially would have to be a particular number. It's not like they can't see the number of followers, so they'll follow in order to see if they win. But then again if you're trying to reach new followers, how would they hear about your gift. Unless, of course, you use hashtags.

Publishing Experience:I'm a NY Times and USA Today bestselling author writing under the pen name, Cali MacKay and write fun and steamy contemporary romances, in addition to erotica, paranormal romances and mysteries. I also write steampunk romances under the pen name Calista Taylor.

Posted 18 May 2011 - 07:05 PM

That's a good idea to pick a number, though once you start getting up in numbers, it'd be a royal pain to find out who that number is.

Publishing Experience:Journalist covering U.S. nonprofits, foundations, and life in general. President and Chief Elephant Officer of Elephant's Bookshelf Press, LLC. Since establishing the company in 2012, we have published ten books, including short stories by several AQC writers and debut novels by AQC authors A.T. O'Connor (aka Cat Woods), "ScubaSteve" Carman, and R.S. Mellette. Heading into 2016, we're aiming to publish at least two books, including the second Mellette novel and an anthology. In 2015, I saw a few memoir/nonfiction pieces published in Red Fez. I expect to do more of that in 2016 and beyond, while also looking to add freelance editing and writing clients.

Publishing Experience:My debut novel, "The Sister Queens," (March 2012/NAL), was set in 13th century France and England and wove the captivating story of sisters, Marguerite and Eleanor of Provence, who both became queens. My next solo novel, "Medicis Daughter," (Dec 1 2015/Thomas Dunne) traveled forward three-hundred years to the intrigue-riven French Valois court, spinning the tale of beautiful princess Marguerite who walks the knife edge between the demands of her serpentine mother, Catherine de Medicis, and those of her own conscience.

In between I became a "hybrid" as part of a group of six authors involved in a high concept novel-in-six-parts called "A Day of Fire" which released in November of 2014. The book, "A Day of Fire," tells the story of the final days of the doomed city of Pompeii in a way you've never read it before.

Posted 19 May 2011 - 09:30 AM

I am not sure I would bother with this for Twitter -- followers just seem to build over time and most of us have time before we will have books to promote anyway. FB on the other hand is giving me fits. I've had no luck getting a significant number of my 700+ twitter followers to "like" my author page. I can't decide if FB is just the wrong setting for an author whose target audience is women between 30-50 or it's me. Ugh. I might be willing to give away something there to get the party started but thanks to their new policy change. . . I can't.

Publishing Experience:I have several short stories published with online magazines such as Bewildering Stories and Aphelion, and part of the 7DS anthology SLAYERS. I have six books in a paranormal series self-published, and as of 2015, I write articles for Gaiam TV. See my blog for more details.

Posted 19 May 2011 - 10:56 AM

I am not sure I would bother with this for Twitter -- followers just seem to build over time and most of us have time before we will have books to promote anyway. FB on the other hand is giving me fits. I've had no luck getting a significant number of my 700+ twitter followers to "like" my author page. I can't decide if FB is just the wrong setting for an author whose target audience is women between 30-50 or it's me. Ugh. I might be willing to give away something there to get the party started but thanks to their new policy change. . . I can't.

Okay, I want to address this.

I see all the time on Twitter, people putting out the call ‘Like my Fan Page! Like my fan page!’, but when you check it out, there’s nothing on it to really ‘like’.

No offence Lit_gal, but before you can have fans, you have to have a product they can be a fan of. Right? You have a book coming out, and that’s wonderful, but do you have anything else these people can read that shows your story skills? You’re asking them to like something, they don’t know whether or not they’re going to like, because there’s nothing there for them to read.

I have short stories already published, so I have content for them, and when your book comes out, you will have content for them too, but don’t expect people to like you without giving them a reason to do so.

It may be slow for you now, but I'm positive when your book comes out, they'll be swamping your fan page.

~I am neither an author nor a writer; I am a storyteller with good grammar.~

Publishing Experience:My debut novel, "The Sister Queens," (March 2012/NAL), was set in 13th century France and England and wove the captivating story of sisters, Marguerite and Eleanor of Provence, who both became queens. My next solo novel, "Medicis Daughter," (Dec 1 2015/Thomas Dunne) traveled forward three-hundred years to the intrigue-riven French Valois court, spinning the tale of beautiful princess Marguerite who walks the knife edge between the demands of her serpentine mother, Catherine de Medicis, and those of her own conscience.

In between I became a "hybrid" as part of a group of six authors involved in a high concept novel-in-six-parts called "A Day of Fire" which released in November of 2014. The book, "A Day of Fire," tells the story of the final days of the doomed city of Pompeii in a way you've never read it before.

Posted 19 May 2011 - 11:07 AM

Okay, I want to address this.

I see all the time on Twitter, people putting out the call ‘Like my Fan Page! Like my fan page!’, but when you check it out, there’s nothing on it to really ‘like’.

No offence Lit_gal, but before you can have fans, you have to have a product they can be a fan of. Right? You have a book coming out, and that’s wonderful, but do you have anything else these people can read that shows your story skills? You’re asking them to like something, they don’t know whether or not they’re going to like, because there’s nothing there for them to read.

I have short stories already published, so I have content for them, and when your book comes out, you will have content for them too, but don’t expect people to like you without giving them a reason to do so.

It may be slow for you now, but I'm positive when your book comes out, they'll be swamping your fan page.

No offence taken!!! Frankly were it up to me I would not have a FB page at this point. Heck, I probably wouldn't have one EVER. I MUST have one (publisher's orders). I like Twitter and I am going to have a kick-a** website with lots of new content all the time.

You may be right about FB and content but I can tell you that writers with hundreds of "likes" don't do much more than intermittantly post updates on their "writers life" (which I'll admit isn't too exciting. . . see my earlier point about why I wouldn't have a FB page if it was optional). As I am discovering, when you Tweet and blog and need website content (oh yeah and need to write that next book right quick) it is increasingly difficult to differentiate the content between the locations/forums (because all the advice I've been given suggests if you have a piece of original content on your website you should not just have the same content on your FB fan page). This may sound old fashioned but -- while I recognize the need for modern authors to market -- I'd like to spend a majority of my time actually producing novels rather than writing material for FB (and in most cases putting excerpts from your book up is right out).

I guess the bottom line goes back to some advice I heard at a conference (but am not currently at liberty to follow) -- don't fool yourself, do the things (social media and other) that you enjoy doing to have contact with potential readers and leave the rest.

Publishing Experience:I have several short stories published with online magazines such as Bewildering Stories and Aphelion, and part of the 7DS anthology SLAYERS. I have six books in a paranormal series self-published, and as of 2015, I write articles for Gaiam TV. See my blog for more details.

Posted 19 May 2011 - 11:35 AM

I hear ya, and it's funny that at your conference they say that, because at the one I was at, it was a completely different set of advice. But then, this was non-fiction, so...

~I am neither an author nor a writer; I am a storyteller with good grammar.~

Publishing Experience:My debut novel, "The Sister Queens," (March 2012/NAL), was set in 13th century France and England and wove the captivating story of sisters, Marguerite and Eleanor of Provence, who both became queens. My next solo novel, "Medicis Daughter," (Dec 1 2015/Thomas Dunne) traveled forward three-hundred years to the intrigue-riven French Valois court, spinning the tale of beautiful princess Marguerite who walks the knife edge between the demands of her serpentine mother, Catherine de Medicis, and those of her own conscience.

In between I became a "hybrid" as part of a group of six authors involved in a high concept novel-in-six-parts called "A Day of Fire" which released in November of 2014. The book, "A Day of Fire," tells the story of the final days of the doomed city of Pompeii in a way you've never read it before.

Posted 19 May 2011 - 11:41 AM

I hear ya, and it's funny that at your conference they say that, because at the one I was at, it was a completely different set of advice. But then, this was non-fiction, so...

I think the point the panel was making is "there are more marketing options than you will ever have time for and if you don't enjoy something you will do it badly" (exhibit number one -- my FB fan page).

Non-fiction is pretty much a completely different ballgame when it comes to promotion, social media, etc. Platform is everything. In fiction, platform is nice, and encouraged ... but not always so "required," especially in the early going.

Publishing Experience:I have several short stories published with online magazines such as Bewildering Stories and Aphelion, and part of the 7DS anthology SLAYERS. I have six books in a paranormal series self-published, and as of 2015, I write articles for Gaiam TV. See my blog for more details.

Posted 19 May 2011 - 12:14 PM

Non-fiction is pretty much a completely different ballgame when it comes to promotion, social media, etc. Platform is everything. In fiction, platform is nice, and encouraged ... but not always so "required," especially in the early going.

At least, that's my unagented, mostly-unpublished understanding.

No, your bang on right about that. I sat through a seminar with two people from HayHouse Publishing and they both said that social media like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube (they're top three), were the most important things for a wanna-be author for them.

~I am neither an author nor a writer; I am a storyteller with good grammar.~

Publishing Experience:Journalist covering U.S. nonprofits, foundations, and life in general. President and Chief Elephant Officer of Elephant's Bookshelf Press, LLC. Since establishing the company in 2012, we have published ten books, including short stories by several AQC writers and debut novels by AQC authors A.T. O'Connor (aka Cat Woods), "ScubaSteve" Carman, and R.S. Mellette. Heading into 2016, we're aiming to publish at least two books, including the second Mellette novel and an anthology. In 2015, I saw a few memoir/nonfiction pieces published in Red Fez. I expect to do more of that in 2016 and beyond, while also looking to add freelance editing and writing clients.

Posted 19 May 2011 - 12:58 PM

Lit, my take on Twitter followers is they're a much different animal than Facebook followers. The oft-used metaphor for twitter is that it's a large cocktail party. I've been to many a cocktail party where I haven't known 80 percent or more of the crowd; so too, Twitter. They follow you because you've said something interesting in the past (or in your case, many things) and they want to see if you say something interesting again. When the mood hits, Twitter followers will leave the room -- purge the list of who they follow, take a match to their computer, whatever.

More often, Facebook people tend to stick around. They're the wallflowers or the people who come back when they say they're going to get another drink at this metaphorical party. They may be just as infrequent in their visits, but if they keep tabs on Facebook, they might see your stuff again. And with your book coming out, you'll be festooning the Facebook-sphere and Twitterverse with news of your book drop, signings, new blog posts, pictures of old queens, you name it.

At some point, you'll also want to sell books. I suspect you'll do that via your site and drive people there by FB and Twitter and any and all means possible.

Publishing Experience:My debut novel, "The Sister Queens," (March 2012/NAL), was set in 13th century France and England and wove the captivating story of sisters, Marguerite and Eleanor of Provence, who both became queens. My next solo novel, "Medicis Daughter," (Dec 1 2015/Thomas Dunne) traveled forward three-hundred years to the intrigue-riven French Valois court, spinning the tale of beautiful princess Marguerite who walks the knife edge between the demands of her serpentine mother, Catherine de Medicis, and those of her own conscience.

In between I became a "hybrid" as part of a group of six authors involved in a high concept novel-in-six-parts called "A Day of Fire" which released in November of 2014. The book, "A Day of Fire," tells the story of the final days of the doomed city of Pompeii in a way you've never read it before.

Posted 19 May 2011 - 01:10 PM

At some point, you'll also want to sell books. I suspect you'll do that via your site and drive people there by FB and Twitter and any and all means possible.

Publishing Experience:My first book, JET SET DESOLATE, was published by Future Fiction London in 2009. My second, a book of poetry called LORAZEPAM & THE VALLEY OF SKIN, was published by valeveil in 2009. Lost Angelene published my chapbook, G(U)ILT, in 2011. My poetry has been anthologized in HAUNTING MUSES, WRITING THE WALLS DOWN: A CONVERGENCE OF LGBTQ VOICES, OFF THE ROCKS #16: AN ANTHOLOGY OF GLBT WRITING, THE L.A. TELEPHONE BOOK VOL. 1, YOU’VE PROBABLY READ THIS BEFORE, and CHRONOMETRY. My work has been published in 3:AM Magazine, The Fanzine, Entropy, HTMLGiant, ENCLAVE, Queer Mental Health, Five:2:One Magazine and elsewhere.

Posted 17 September 2016 - 05:17 AM

I love mwsinclair's advice here. Wise words.

I sent a copy of my chapbook and some tarot cards to my hundredth follower, who became a dear Twitterfriend who I now tweet back and forth with.

The hundredth was the only milestone I rewarded though. Once things took off into the thousands and tens of thousands of followers I didn't reward anymore milestones as it's certainly not required and just focused on creating entertaining content,